Is it too early for an A level support thread!

[HereWeGo2023]

Hello all, apologies if there is already a thread but I can’t find one.
May had finally rolled around and the first exam is a mere 2 weeks away. Exam stress has hit our house! It’s feels like everything is about waiting at the moment - waiting for the predicted grades, waiting for the uni offers, waiting for the exams to start, and then the long wait for the results!
This is our youngest DD but the first one in further education so would love to chat to other parents going through this

Sorry ignore me, I thought I was on the GCSEs thread!

I'm feeling grateful that DS doesn't have another A level exam until Wednesday, when things might have cooled down a little bit. Final lessons this week with his Spanish teacher and his Physics tutor, it definitely has an 'end of era' feeling to it now. (Although exams don't actually finish until the week after).

A level Religious Studies tomorrow.

Then a break till Friday when its Biology paper 2.

Mix of Religious Srudies and Biology paper 3 the week after. We finish on the 23rd.

just want it over with now

So it's pouring down here. Lightning, thunder and car and house alarms going off, windows rattling! DD is not feeling great with hay fever, itchy eyes and bunged up nose dispite taking prescription tablets. Chemistry in the morning and it is not looking great.
She can't concentrate to revise so I am going to suggest a cool shower and bed.
All the best for those who also have exams tomorrow

South West here. Still hoping for rain after nine p.m would help.

Solidarity with all those sitting more tomoz. We have got three to go , next Friday two on same day and finishing 21st June.

Interesting reading the comments about physics paper 2. I think DS is doing OCR which would fit with the comments ... he'd done some mad last minute revision and apparently found the paper more "knowledge heavy" than usual but had it fresh in mind.

Music tomorrow, doesn't matter for his offers, but I still hope it goes well as he's very very good at all aspects of the subject. Just fed up with the nuances of the exam format ...

Break a leg people

Chemistry tomorrow- dd very tearful but has just gone to bed. Good luck to all dc.

Good luck everyone for tomorrow - hope the weather is kind (too much to hope the exam papers might be!)

Good luck to everyone with exams today especially to the chemists this morning. Two for DS this week - today and tomorrow and then three next week finishing on Friday 23rd. It does seem to be dragging on now.

Dragging on far too long! DS started 8 May and also finishes on 23, several of his mates have now finished and he’s def running out of steam - hoping chemistry doesn’t suffer too much as a result. Still really humid here, no rain yet - at least a morning exam though as I think it’s only going to get hotter… good luck to all.

Good luck from us on a dull post-rainy Monday morning.

Music for DD this afternoon - her last exam and her favourite subject, so she will want to do as well as possible. Just hope the technology works!

Good luck everyone this morning, chemistry for DD1 thus morning, she isndreading it but will be glad when it's done ✔️

Last Geography paper for DS today then final PE next week. He started really early and they feel like the have gone on forever!

Good luck to everyone else doing exams today!

My daughter just has history left tomorrow. Since her 2nd History exam Friday I've seen her for about 30 minutes the whole weekend. She'd come down, take her dinner and back up to her desk. Last push she says. It's a morning exam so I've booked us a nice lunch at a place we ate when we first looked at the school. I'm giving her a cute pair of earrings and her favourite biscuits from Spain which I found at an extortionate price on Amazon (it was the plan to go there for first time since 2019 but for various reasons we aren't).
Good luck to all - hang in there!

I think there might be other GCSE threads to dicsuss them, this is an A level one (?)

DS has comp sci this afternoon, it is too hot. Feel sorry for them today, but hope all goes well. Only a couple of weeks till this is over.

Well done everyone it is a thing anyway, getting them out of the house on time to attend exams. As someone said, final push now.

Last one ten days away here, next Wed.

Good to plan something for the end. After so much work guess it will feel like an anti climax?

Geography paper 3 (Edexcel) for DS this afternoon, bit of an odd one as there isn't too much revision they can do for it as it's all 'skills'. Then the final onslaught towards Politics paper 3 on Friday. DS started early and it feels like it has dragged on forever. It is so hot today and they are in a windowless room so I will send him with a bottle of iced water

DS has 'skills' papers in Physics and Biology too @ono40 - I've suggested a couple of YouTube videos for him to help revise because, as you say, it's a 'skills' thing so hard to revise for. I mean why examine them in practical skills with a written paper anyway 🙄 Hope it goes well in Geography.

Thanks @tribpot there's no need for them to do a paper 3 as they also have a NEA which covers practical skills. In my day, we had to do a Physics and Chemistry practical as part of the A-level. I can remember one of the Physics ones involved measuring a very small ball bearing accurately with calipers (not a skill I have ever needed since) and the person in front of me dropped it and lost it, cue absolute pandemonium!

Just had a mega meltdown in our house during which DD told me I 'hadn't been there for her for seventeen years...' Geesh.

She later apologised and said she was overwhelmed.

By some miracle I had managed to stay calm and continue hanging out the washing. ..

@Forestfriendlygarden well done for staying calm - it’s just such a massively stressful time for them all.

Dd smiling after Chem P1 (Edexcel) - it’s the subject she finds hardest but she felt it went well - apparently very little Maths and 2 x 6 markers. Today was the half way point for her - 1 more this week and then 3 next.

Hope all the others doing chemistry are happy as are dc who are doing other subjects (dd said French was this morning also).

How did people's children find AQA Chemistry? My son thought some of the questions were oddly worded so he hopes what he said was sensible and what they wanted.

Ds1 has Computer Science (OCR) this afternoon. He says the sports hall is cool, so here's hoping. Antihistamines are mostly working.
His teacher became seriously ill in October of year 12 and was never replaced, so he's taught himself with the hindrance of a series of unqualified subs. He needs a B, got a high A on the coursework.

Between the heat and the exams, I'm having trouble getting anything done myself!

Another Edexcel Chemistry paper one here. DS said it was a nice paper. Phew! Pure Maths 2 tomorrow afternoon. Finally over half way through the exams.